Doctor Who Thread III: Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow

[CurlyKitGirl]

X: A wibbly wobbly timey wimey thread would be a fun one for Ten as well.

It is one of his more memorable quotes, we can put it up there for consideration. We are after all, still a dozen pages from the end of the third thread after all.

I think he's referring to this scene in The Twin dilemma, not some poxy Shakespeare

That is such a hammy clip. And I apologise for quoting such tawdry, sexually explicit, popular fiction, I'll make sure not to do so next time.
After all, children do read this thread. Possible. And we don't want them reading Shakespeare now do we?

Yes exactly

Threads are the Time Lords and the board is Gallifrery.

Though the limit is more then thirteen.....

Then who's the Rani?!
And which one's the Master?

The question is of course whether we try and create a thread 12.5 to serve as the Valeyard's part in all of this...

'

'Tis a mythology gag! It must be done. Now to find find a snappy/memorable line of his . . .

Let us not forget that he wrote the sitcom Coupling, and I think a lot of that style sometimes leaks over into his Who.

From what I skim read I can see its influence, but I'd have to actually watch the show to make accurate comparisons.

Most notable during Tom Baker's second season, where pretty much every story was inspired by a classic horror trope. But the first and third Baker seasons were also largely darker in tone than what had gone before. Which could be why they are some of the best. In my mind, anything that upset Mary Whitehouse had something going for it.

Yay! I love classic horror tropes! I have, on my new bookcase, many of the codifiers of horror and gothic horror! So much fun.
And yes, anything that upsets Mary Whitehouse is a good idea. Hell, the Goodies, after finding out she thought their show was morally clean and good and thus worthy of her approval, immediately went and wrote an episode designed to be everything she hates.
Just goes to show Mary Whitehouse is everyone's bitch (pardon my Talaxian) and seemingly one of the most reviled/annoying people to ever be involved with television.
Seriously, you check TVTropes' Moral Guardians page and half of the examples seem to be a parody of her/inspired by her/written explicitly to defy/satirise her.

The First Doctor serial "Edge of Destruction" is an odd two-parter between "The Daleks" and "Marco Polo", so the third story ever, where a fault in the TARDIS sends it heading back to the start of time, and basically involves The Doctor, Ian, Susan and Barbara getting angry with each other under the pressure (also at this stage the Doctor has effectively kidnapped the two teachers and it was his fault they got stranded on Skaro). I'd like to see a retread of that.

And don't forget that all the First Doctor historicals (and the first few Second Doctor historical stories too) don't feature alien monsters, although as you say a "given level of monster" you might include Nero or Robespierre as a "monster". Quite often, though, the human adversaries are quite nuanced (see esp. The Aztecs or The Crusades).

When I say 'given level of monster' I mean, humans can be complete and utter monsters, so let's see that. Doctor Who often shows humanity at its best, both as individuals and groups, and we do see humanity at its worst. But usually only as a group.
I want to see soulless, corrupt hating humans who are like that because they are. No/few aliens involved. And preferably sane or rational people doing it.
That's why I like Tobias Vaughn. His perfect humanity just so happens to coincide with Cybermen ideals, so he allies with them, but it's all his idea. Nyder in 'Genesis of the Daleks' is even more disgusting than Davros because he's clearly a sane person, yet he just approves of a genocide as if it were nothing.
It's why I liked the twist in 'The Snowmen', Dr. Simeon was quite literally his own shoulder devil and I liked that. Shame it was undermined in the end, but it was a good twist.
No aliens from outside space. Just make it a domestic thing. One of the creepiest and saddest stories I've ever read is The Sacred and the Profane, a Good Omens fanfic with the simple premise: what if Aziraphale Fell?
On of the first actions we are shown is that he's going to bludgeon the Antichrist (at this point a babe in arms) to death 'to stop it crying'.
Do something like that. Someone who does bad things because they want or need to. No aliens!

Ye gods.

That was honestly heart-breaking, and this is ME saying that. (Probably doesn't help that I know a family member who's now suffering severe dementia (she doesn't really remember anyone any more).) That was masterfully done. Coming out of a comedy sketch, of course, makes it more so, because of the mood whiplash, used to great effect here. Superlative piece of acting.

It gets worse. That series there was an ongoing 'backstage' plot where Mitchell and Webb acting as in-universe Mitchell and Webbs were discussing drama bomb finales in comedy shows. Naturally, the one they talk about is Blackadder Goes Forth, and they say it's a bit pointless trying for such a thing nowadays because they always ruin the punch by having the announcer speak over the credits. So that episode they parody it by doing a comedic drama-by-death thing.
The next episode is the last one in the series/show proper (I forget which) and they have 'Old Holmes' as the last sketch.
There's no announcer over the credits.
They told you how it was going to end, and why earlier on.
Laugh, laugh, oh look, it's funny because Holmes isn't being Sherlock Holmes, he's old and senile and - oh, this is quite sad and desperate really . . .
"I know John"
*waitwotsilence*
"I just . . . can't get the fog to clear"
*heartbreak on and off-screen*
And always that sad little violin plays.
Until the end of the credits.

The acting and everything in that sketch is perfectly designed to go from humour to awkwardness tinged with sadness to Robert Webb stop looking as if you're about to cry and David Mitchell how dare you!

Yeah, that is one of the most depressing pieces of sketch 'comedy' I've ever seen.

Deliberately tailored too.